Thursday, December 30, 2010

Sofia Talks 'Somewhere'

Filmindependent with Sofia Coppola about her minimalist approach for 'Somewhere':

It seems that you as a filmmaker tend to move towards the smaller and the more intimate. In this film specifically, I noticed that there was a real sense of stillness and a quiet. The sounds were so palpable; you could hear breathing in pools and skates on the ice. How much a part of that came at the beginning, and how much came at the end?

That was something I wanted throughout the process. I talked about that to Richard Beggs, our sound designer, who I love working with. It feels like a lot of movies just bombard you with music and songs in every scene; I just wanted to approach everything as minimally as possible...to do a really minimal portrait of this guy. Even with the camera work, I wanted you to not be aware of the camera -to feel natural. It was important to make it feel like you were alone with this guy, and that included the sound also feeling really natural - the sounds of the engine, the squeaks on the poles. We didn't use a lot of music. Some, but it was limited. I really wanted to let it breathe. I think that all those little details make it come to life. I wanted to experiment on how simply we could do something.

You know, I happen to agree with all that. Still, as I said, I'm not a huge fan of her movies. They are easy to watch, though.